We ladies have to stick together! It’s us against the world. But often, it’s us against each other. Women seem to compete for everything. We compete for boys, friends, and even deals at the mall and we do it both subtly and openly. But why? Some say this is natural. This is the way women behave biologically. But this is not necessarily true. There are other forces at work here.
Socially, women have been conditioned to be more obsessed with appearances. Right or wrong, this is the current state of the world. So when a woman perceives another women as threatening in some way, she acts aggressively. Our aggression towards others is fueled by our feelings about ourselves.
In the news we see men and women in politics. How many times have you heard stories about Michelle Obama’s toned arms or Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit choices? Probably like a zillion. But how many times have you heard stories about Barrack Obama’s physique or Bill Clinton’s clothing choices? Rarely, if ever. These people serve similar political roles and are all very prominent. Keeping in mind, the success of a politician is not based on his or her appearance, why are there so many stories about Michelle and Hilary’s appearance and so few on Barrack and Bill? It’s because in today’s society women are judged on their appearance and men are judged on their competency. A woman’s appearance is, in today’s psyche, demonstrative of her competence. Women judge other women based on what they look like and this is why women can be so mean.
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In a study done at McMaster University, female students were placed in a room into which a scantily clad woman walked into asking for the professor. After the young lady left, the comments made about this girl by the subjects were recorded. Most pairs of female students made nasty comments about the girl in the slutty outfit. But pairs that had the same women dressed in a more conservative outfit pop in on them had much less to say. This experiment demonstrated the aggression that women have for each other based solely on appearances.
If we empower women to believe more in themselves and place less emphasis on personal appearance and the appearance of others, we could work towards a world where us ladies are a lot nicer to each other.
